Review Information
Game Reviewed When Union Is Necessary TECH DEMO, by VanoButenidze
Review Author CM30
Created Oct 19 2017, 9:39 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
On the face of things, When Union Is Necessary is a good idea for a fan game. You've got two interesting characters working together and some mechanics that could theoretically work well if implemented in a longer adventure.

Alas, this demo doesn't use the new ideas well at all, and has so little content that it's really not even worth playing. Or heck, submitting to Mario Fan Games Galaxy in general.
 
Pros - The game looks somewhat nice, with pleasant graphics for the foregrounds, backgrounds and characters.
-Music wise, it's pretty decent.
- The idea of Toad and Kammy working together is a neat one, as is that of Kammy building bridges for Toad to use to get past otherwise impossible obstacles.
 
Cons - It's far too short. Anyone who plays this demo will be done with it in roughly three minutes.
- There's no sense of challenge at all. Enemies can't kill you, pits merely send you back to the start and puzzles are trivial to complete.
- The game's incredibly slow pace and trivially easy obstacles mean it simply isn't fun to play.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
4 / 10
Well, it functions. On a purely mechanical level, Toad goes exactly where you tell him to and you won't be falling in holes through no fault of your own.

So in that sense, the game is better than some I've seen on the site. It's not like say, Mario's Super Quest or whatever where Mario jerks around the screen like a puppet, or that Mario platformer built in RPG Maker where the core engine just does not work for the game.

At the same time though, it's just not fun to play. Level design is bland, Kammy's role is limited to randomly dropping blocks (which means you can be stuck waiting a while to 'solve' a complete non puzzle) and absolutely nothing in the game can kill Toad at all.

This means a good concept and an alright engine is wasted on a game which seems offers nothing fun for the player to do with it.
 
Graphics
7 / 10
Probably the best part of the game to be honest, since the graphics work moderately well together and don't merely use the same old tired SMB 3 look found in so many engine clone games.

Unfortunately, it's let down by the complete lack of decorations or other interesting things to spice up the look of the levels. So while it's decent in the graphics department, the worlds still feel completely dead due to a lack of detail.
 
Sound
5 / 10
There's one main song in the game, and it's moderately pleasing to listen to.

However, it does get tedious rather quickly, and the other music in the game (the boss theme from Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga) just doesn't fit the scene it's played in at all.

Not bad, just... there I guess.
 
Replay
1 / 10
What replay value?

The main... 'action' part of this demo can be completely in roughly 1 minute if you don't make any mistakes, and maybe 2 or 3 if you keep messing up.

Add a complete lack of extras or bonuses (like secret areas, coins or items to collect, other levels, boss battles, etc) and you've got a 'game' which can be started and finished within the span of a single commercial break.

How utterly pathetic.
 
Final Words
2 / 10
On a mechanical level, When Union Is Necessary is a competently put together demo that showcases an interesting main mechanic for an upcoming game.

However, the lack of difficulty, boring level design and general lack of content means this game just isn't worth playing. There's simply nothing to it, to the point I'm genuinely surprised it got accepted on MFGG at all.

So just avoid it really. There are better things to do with your time than play this, even if it only does last about 1 minute in real time.

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